Our third morning in Spain's capital city was spent touring the city by bus, visiting sites we had already seen on prior days, driving around areas at some distance from our hotel while listening to comments from our city guide -- " On the right, we are coming up on ..."; "To the left you will see ..." -- and getting caught in traffic just as the scenic overview was winding down. Not the most auspicious beginning but bearable enough in the final analysis.
By the time the bus left us back at our hotel, we really didn't have time for more than a quick granola bar before we headed off to the museum we had found closed when attempting to visit two afternoons ago. We didn't want to risk missing the entire experience yet again, and we knew the place closed at three SHARP!
Our haste proved worth the effort. The Museo Cerralbo, it turned out, proved the highlight of our time-to-date in Madrid! Established through the efforts of the seventeenth Marquis of Cerralbo, Don Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, in the early twentieth century, this house museum essentially
recreates the essence of Spanish aristocratic life as experienced in the late nineteenth century.
The small garden and adjacent summer rooms initilly struck us as interesting but nothing too special, aside from the marevelous chandeliers hanging from every ceiling and the multiple works of art covering every square inch of wall space up and down the hallways leading from room to room.
The entrance hall and the upstairs rooms, however, changed our perceptions one hundred percent. We marveled at the accumulated collections housed here in seemingly endless profusion: "the marquis," it turned out, "collected painting, sculpture, coins and metals, ceramic ware, tapestries, "furniture, drawings, prints, clocks, weapons, armour, and any other objects that attracted his scholarly attention or curiosity."
Shortly before his death in 1922, he purchased half of the city residence belonging to the Marquis of Villa-Huerta to house his accumulated bounty. The Spanish state inherited the collections and completed both the purchase of the remainder of the mansion and the renovation of the structure into the current museum.
The marriage of house and museum works extraordinarily well. Visitors come away with a much better understanding of just how collections like these as accumulated by the wealthy were displayed and utilized withhin an aristocratic residential setting. But, wow, talk about "overkill" and "excess" - nineteenth century Spanish aristocrats clearly give no quarter to today's One Percent, that's quite clear!
The only question we were left with after our ninety minute visit, in fact, revolved around "How in the world did the Marquis ever have the time and energy to amass all this "stuff"?
Our first full day "on tour" ended fittingly enough with a fine group Welcome Dinner at Galopin, a comfortable and homey restaurant just off the Grand Via. We strolled back to our hotel among the growing Friday night crowds headed out for the beginning of the weekend to come, marveling over and over at the liveliness of everyone around us.
Indeed Madridians seem to "work to live" rather than the other way around.
Our haste proved worth the effort. The Museo Cerralbo, it turned out, proved the highlight of our time-to-date in Madrid! Established through the efforts of the seventeenth Marquis of Cerralbo, Don Enrique de Aguilera y Gamboa, in the early twentieth century, this house museum essentially
recreates the essence of Spanish aristocratic life as experienced in the late nineteenth century.
The entrance hall and the upstairs rooms, however, changed our perceptions one hundred percent. We marveled at the accumulated collections housed here in seemingly endless profusion: "the marquis," it turned out, "collected painting, sculpture, coins and metals, ceramic ware, tapestries, "furniture, drawings, prints, clocks, weapons, armour, and any other objects that attracted his scholarly attention or curiosity."
Shortly before his death in 1922, he purchased half of the city residence belonging to the Marquis of Villa-Huerta to house his accumulated bounty. The Spanish state inherited the collections and completed both the purchase of the remainder of the mansion and the renovation of the structure into the current museum.
The only question we were left with after our ninety minute visit, in fact, revolved around "How in the world did the Marquis ever have the time and energy to amass all this "stuff"?
Our first full day "on tour" ended fittingly enough with a fine group Welcome Dinner at Galopin, a comfortable and homey restaurant just off the Grand Via. We strolled back to our hotel among the growing Friday night crowds headed out for the beginning of the weekend to come, marveling over and over at the liveliness of everyone around us.
Indeed Madridians seem to "work to live" rather than the other way around.
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